Natural Resources committee  I have to commend you for knowing a lot about forestry and forest fires, because I think you pretty much got things right. Forest fires are a natural source of regeneration in the boreal. Forest fire suppression costs between $500 million to $1 billion across the country each yea

Natural Resources committee  I was going to launch into a long answer.

Natural Resources committee  Quickly, yes, we do a lot of research. In fact, my scientists have invented something called triazine, which can be used to inject the ash trees. That's actually an invention of the CFS. More broadly, we work very closely with all the provinces, increasingly with the cities and a

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for that question. You did say in the immediate term, and in the immediate term it's all positive, actually. It would be in the medium term to the long term where there would be larger questions. It's positive because lower oil means lower transportation costs. For

Natural Resources committee  No.

Natural Resources committee  I'll ask Bob to answer the question, because he has been working with this for years. The key thing to keep in mind here is we're not talking about stick building. We're not talking about two-by-fours. Yes, two-by-fours burn in a hurry. We are talking about mass timber. In this c

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for that question. First, let me say that you are right that northern Ontario was probably the hardest hit part of the country in the last recession and is the slowest to recover. You can appreciate that that bothers my minister, who's also from your part of the countr

Natural Resources committee  I wouldn't suspect that we would necessarily know what those exports are used for. The export of logs is primarily a provincial matter, and it's really only an issue in British Columbia. The Government of Canada has a small regulation covering about 2% of the land base of the p

Natural Resources committee  Yes, the private woodlot owners would in the first instance have a relationship with the provinces in which they're located. We do hear from them from time to time, so we're broadly familiar with their concerns, but we're not their first point of contact.

Natural Resources committee  I would have to get back to you on that. I don't know.

Natural Resources committee  Sorry, was that question about the Canadian Forest Service or about the forest sector in general?

Natural Resources committee  Okay, then I actually can answer that question. I couldn't answer the question about my own organization, though, which worries me.

Natural Resources committee  I believe about 9,000 from first nations are employed.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for that question. As I said, I have four years in with the forest sector, so I don't have some of the deep history. The way I would describe it is that, to start, most of the Canadian forest is owned by the crown: 93% of the Canadian forest is owned by the crown, alm

Natural Resources committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about the forest industry. It's truly an exciting time in the forest sector. The industry has a strong story to tell, one based on leadership and partnership, perseveranc